Having been a professional truck driver and trainer for more than 30 years, I find that you never, ever know it all. There are always new things to learn. My primary goal with this blog is to help other drivers (especially newer ones) with pertinent information and tips to enable them to work happier and more safely. Guest posts, contributors and feed-back are always welcome and wanted!

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Monday, March 19, 2012

Today'sTrucking.com / One on One with Jerry Moyes

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Courtesy of Today'sTrucking.com

One On One with Jerry Moyes, Swift Transportation - by Jason Rhyno
03/16/2012

As CEO and founder of Swift Transportation — the largest trucking company in the U.S. — Jerry Moyes knows a thing or two about trucking. As the Keynote Speaker at this year's Fleet Managers' Breakfast at Truck World, we thought it was good opportunity to get to know the trucking legend, talk shop and get some business advice.When did you realize you were destined for trucking?
My father used to drive for C.R. England, and as a young kid — five or six years old — I was always in the truck and driving with dad. So I've just always been around trucking my whole life. It was the direction I was going from day one.Any lessons you learned in the early days of Swift?
We came up during the years of regulation, when we had to have ICC Authority and you had to do it differently or better than the existing carrier to be able to get the Authority. With that background, we always ask how do we do it differently and how do we do it better to get the business.What do you think will be the biggest challenge for trucking companies in 2012?
Government regulations. We're just getting bombarded with various government regulations from CSA to different engine EPA requirements. Our costs are going up dramatically, too. I've never been in an era when costs are as high as they are — that's our number one challenge: what we are going to do from a costing side going forward?

Swift has been experimenting with LNG. Where are you now?
Where we are with natural gas is one of the important things in my presentation at Truck World. We're very excited about it. We have three different test projects that we are working on today. One is the Cummins 8.9 litre that is very underpowered but we're working some dedicated operations where we don't need a lot of power. We're also testing Cummins 11.9 litre engine that has some great promise. We're also involved with a company where we are mixing CNG and diesel — a hybrid that we're getting some excellent results on. We really believe that natural gas is a thing of the future. There's probably a five-year window to get into it. The manufacturers, like Cummins, are just starting to develop their 11.9 litre engines today. I don't know exactly what their time frame is on their 15 litres — probably a year or two behind. But we really think that this industry over the next five years could be close to 50 percent natural gas.How should a carrier treat its drivers?
I've been in this business for 45 years and the number one problem has always been drivers. It's not going to change. For us to solve this, we've got to give them a lot more money. It's still a very difficult job, even though I believe the job itself is getting much better because they aren't required to unload like they used to and the equipment is getting so much better. The offset of that is that we aren't getting the driver that's the old trucker anymore, it's the opposite of that: it's the new kid that's coming off the street. He wants all these different benefits and he's just not willing to work in the way that the older driver is. The industry has to look at that: number one, we have a different driver we gotta take care of — he has different attitudes and different wants — and number two, we gotta pay him more money.If you could give one piece of advice to a company that was on the cusp of taking its business to the next level, what would it be?
Watch the numbers. You've got to know where you are on a daily basis as far as revenue and miles. Break everything down.If you could go on a long-haul with anyone living or dead, who would it be?
Well, my dad died 25 years ago and he and I used to drive together. So if I had to select someone, it would probably be my father. It would just be fun to go trucking with him again.

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Having spent the last 36 years (23 as a trainer) driving tractor-trailer combinations and being involved with 3rd party logistics, I have gained valuable experience in such areas as safety, driver recruitment, hiring, DOT file set-up and maintenance, dispatching,on board computer training and have assisted at many start-up locations.

Having been both an employer and an employee, I can objectively see both sides of issues pertaining to management-employee relations. I maintain an excellent relationship with my supervisors, as well as drivers. Have owned and operated three successful businesses. Experienced in the fundamentals of bookkeeping, accounting principles and income tax preparation. Extensive, specific experience in the interview and hiring process of drivers, warehouse workers, driver helpers, and administrative assistants. Specialties include customer relations, driving, DOT regulations, hiring, leadership, logistics, training, transportation, dispatching, safety.

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